One of the biggest bulges in San Francisco's budget crisis is the $86 million a year that the city spends on premium pay - money that rewards employees and managers for everything from working nights to having toiled for the city for 10 years.

For example, in addition to her $273,112-a-year salary, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-Whiteearned enough in various pay premiums in 2009 to bring her total to $290,o27.

The chief's extra pay comes in the form of a "fire education incentive premium," which goes to all firefighters who have an associate's or bachelor's degree or 10 years in the Fire Department, and who complete the department's annual training requirements. Of course, those would be basic qualifications for any chief.

Hayes-White is not alone among Fire Department brass in raking in such bonus pay.

The top 10 earners in the department last year included a deputy chief, two assistant chiefs and three battalion chiefs, who received anywhere from $22,893 to $33,685 in premium pay.

Departmentwide, the premium pay total comes to about $20 million a year. It's one of the reasons San Francisco's firefighters on average earn $111,699 a year before overtime, according to the city's Human Resources Department.

Over at the Police Department, the annual premium pay bill totals $13 million. Unlike at the Fire Department, however, the premiums aren't broken down by position.

For workers in many city departments, there are premiums for working nights, for working the graveyard shift, for being bilingual. Many stationary engineers get a 7.5 percent premium for being qualified to repair heating and air-conditioning systems - something one would think they ought to know to get the job in the first place.

Over at Muni, drivers get an 8 percent pay bump for working between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., a 50-cent-an-hour premium for working in the same division for more than five years, and free fitness club coverage.

The premiums are all part of the union contracts approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by mayors over the years. Not every city worker gets them, but those who do will probably keep raking them in even as the cash-strapped city orders furlough days, lays off employees and demands other concessions - because the premiums are in employees' contracts.

As for the extras for Fire Department bosses?

"That may be the subject of discussions," said mayoral Chief of Staff Steve Kawa, "because in these times, everything should be on the table."

Pedal power: In a true example of the squeaky wheel getting the grease, bicyclists are getting a major break over motorists when it comes to the tougher cell phone law making its way through the state Legislature.

The proposed law would increase the fine for texting or using a hand-held cell phone on the road to $50 for a first-time offender.

Adding in all the state's court fees and surcharges, that really comes to about $255 for drivers. A second offense would come to $445 in most counties.

But thanks to some very effective lobbying by pedal pushers, cyclists won't have to pay those extra charges. As a result, their fines will be hundreds of dollars less than those of drivers.

The logic is that distracted cyclists do less damage than someone in a car (of course, a car can do a fair amount of damage to a distracted cyclist), and besides, cyclists tend to be young and thus can't afford the high fine.

As if anyone can.

Hahn's last stand? Mayor Gavin Newsomdidn't get the state Democratic Party endorsement in his race for lieutenant governor, but he got the next best thing: keeping rival L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn from getting it.

Newsom received 52 percent of the 1,700 delegate votes cast Saturday at the party convention in L.A. - shy of the 60 percent needed for the endorsement, but well ahead of Hahn's 42 percent.

For Hahn, losing the endorsement fight she insisted on waging may have cost her any chance of gaining the momentum and money she'll need to deny the better-known Newsom the primary win in June. But then the handwriting may have been on the wall before the weekend vote, with Team Hahn's own pre-convention survey showing Newsom was ahead in the delegate count.

Some of it may have been the fact that the San Francisco mayor was better known among the delegates. He put on a big show at last year's convention when he was considered a rising party star and gearing up to run for governor.

Newsom also had managed to lock up most of the party's key endorsements, including those of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Assembly Speaker John Pérez and state Senate President Darrell Steinberg- not to mention popular longtime Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. (Even the current chair, fellow San Franciscan John Burton - while officially maintaining his neutrality - could hardly contain his support for Newsom.)

Plus, Newsom had the backing of the powerful California Teachers Association, whose members make up the single biggest contingent of party delegates. Upshot: Hahn's Hail Mary endorsement play - from phone banking and robo calls to a big Friday night party - fell flat.

As for Newsom not getting the endorsement himself? "We won by not losing," said Newsom strategist Jason Kinney.